(1918) Food Saving & Sharing Telling How the Older Children of America May Save From Famine Their Comrades in Allied Lands Across the Sea

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FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING TelKn

How

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Quldren of .erica Oove Help May ' ~ _

from

I*amiive

Their Comrades in ADied Lemds Across the Sea. Prepared, under ike direction of

THE UNITED STATES

FOOD ADMINISTRAnON

in cooperation witk THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT

OF AGRICULTURE AND THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION

GARDEN CITY

TIE* TORK.

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COPYRIGHT, IQiS, BY

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN v

FOREWORD The National Education

Association, at its annual meeting, July, 1918, adopted a resolution calling upon the United States Food Administration to "prepare in

a form suitable for use in public schools, and particularly in the upper grades, lessons and material supple-

mentary to existing courses, which program of food conservation."

will

promote the

In response to this request this little book has been prepared. It was written by Eva March Tappan, assisted

by

Alice Peloubet Norton, editor of the Journal

Home Economics; Henrietta W. Calvin, Specialist in Home Economics, Bureau of Education; C. F. Langworthy, Chief of the Office of Home Economics, Departof

ment of Agriculture; and Sarah Louise Arnold, Dean It has been read and approved of Simmons College. Professor of Food Chemistry, H. C. Sherman, by Columbia University. The manner in which the book can be used most advantageously will be determined by the teacher and by local conditions.

It is believed that the

information

may properly be included in the instrucThis tion of American children at the present time. contained in

it

information will enable the children to contribute intelligently to the success of the

government food cam-

388699

FOREWORD

vi

paign, and thus aid greatly in the relief of the millions for their food upon the good will of

now dependent

the people of America. The United States Food Administration

is

grateful to

the teachers for their loyal cooperation.

OLIN TEMPLIN Director of School

November

i,

1918.

and

College Activities

To

the Girls

Now that

and Boys

of America:

the terrible war

is

over,

you must be glad

that you helped to win it by saving food for our soldiers and our unhappy friends across the sea. But

our work of feeding hungry people is now to be Many millions of peogreater than it has ever been. ple have been made free by our victory, but they are in the greatest danger of death from starvation. They look to America for food until the next harvest.

We

must go on saving and sharing with them as And of course you will want to do faithfully as ever. your part as you have been doing it. To save the world from famine will be a greater task than any of us can imagine, but we can do it if each of us does all he can.

I

am

counting on you. Faithfully yours,

HERBERT HOOVER.

GRACE AT TABLE 1918 Here we gather dear All-Father, ',

Round Thy

table to be fed.

9

Tis Thy

As we

gift,

gather

to

our daily bread. be fed

Nations plead for daily bread, Fighting son and anguished mother,

Orphaned

all together

children,

for daily bread. Pray At Thy common table, Father, Ask we all for daily bread. to the e

God, All-Father, hear our prayer! Move our hearts and minds to share

With Thy children This,

Thy

Sacred

at

Thy

table

gift of daily bread,

gift of daily bread!

Lest they perish, swift

and eager

Share we now our daily bread. Give through us,

To Thy

great All-Father,

children, daily bread!

SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD

CONTENTS CHAPTER I.

II.

PAGE

Food Saving and Sharing

i

Food

9

in

General

....

III.

About Fruit and Vegetables

IV.

Foods That Help Build the Body

V. VI. VII. VIII.

IX.

X.

Cereals, Foods Rich in Starch

21

...

27

37

Fats and Fatty Foods

,

Hungry Europe Is the

The

Little

Have Yet

47 55

Food of the World?

What We Did About

XL What We XII.

.

.

Sugar and Sweets

Where

13

.

.

It

to

65 73

Do

Group of One

....

91

97

praveyour

Americanism less eating

CHAPTER

I

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING outbreak of the war, it became and the neutral countries could get food from North America, they would soon find themselves hungry. We were glad to send food. We put wheat substitutes in our bread; we ate less sugar than usual; and we kept meatless days all in order to save food to send across the ocean. The war is over, but the coming of peace does not

Not long

after the

clear that unless the Allies

the empty plates of the hungry people of Europe. For some time to come, this must be chiefly the work of North America. We must do more than in the time fill

of

war because there are so many more people to feed. must help not only the Allies but also the starving

We

nations that

we could not reach German invaders.

freed from the

ican

way

to leave

must do our

until they It

is

had been

not the Amer-

any people to die of starvation. and a generous share. We

sh?re,

We shall

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

2

than we are accustomed to of some of the things that we like, and we shall have to be careful not to be wasteful. Some of us have fallen into the habit of being careless

probably have to eat

less

and extravagant

the matter of food.

in

Compared

with the states of Europe, the United States is a young country, and the food history of all young countries When colonists first come to a land,, is much the same.

they usually find

it

for a

time somewhat

difficult to get

Before long matters imfood, excepting wild meat. prove. The soil of a new land is rich and fertile,

and soon food of many kinds becomes plentiful. Naturally, those who have not had all that they wished now enjoy the abundance, and take great pleasure in loading their tables with all sorts of delicacies. That is the way it has been with this country. But even before the war, people were beginning to find out that this fashion of living was foolish and extravagant, kinds of food in elaborate ways was a great waste of time and material, and that an overloaded table was in poor taste. In short, people that preparing so

many

were beginning to think more wisely about their food. When we began to send large quantities of food to Europe, we had to look at food in a new and different We had been in the habit of choosing whatfashion. ever we liked, provided it did not cost more than we

We now learned that we ought rather to we needed for health and strength. had to send the amount of food that we could

could pay. choose what

We

w HA/W fi^E!!!! VfOMinM

CHAPTER

III

ABOUT FRUIT AND VEGETABLES always interesting to visit a place where food of many kinds is for sale. People who live in the for are fortunate, they can raise much of their country own food; but they always enjoy going to the state It

is

on exhibition and prizes are given out for the biggest potatoes and pumpkins, the best bread and cake and jelly and preserves as well In the city as for the best sheep and pigs and oxen. there are often food fairs, and in the larger cities there are generally great market buildings where farmers can bring their produce, have the use of a stall, and sell and county

fairs

where food

is

In many of the smaller directly to their customers. cities the "market" consists of a great room or hall

many counters, and on these all kinds of food are placed, carefully protected by glass from dust and flies, but open to view, and with each counter given up

with

to

some one kind

of food. is

These counters are

skill-

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

i4

fully arranged to induce

customers to buy more than they intended, the meat and vegetables farthest from the entrance, because people will buy these anyway; and luxuries near the door, so people will be tempted

by them when waiting

for a car.

Such markets are arranged for the benefit of the seller; but one might be planned for the benefit o the buyer, not the buyer who merely wants "something " good to eat, but the intelligent buyer who knows that of value for some special purpose. Suppose there were such a market, or rather, a great food fair, larger than any fair that was ever held before, and that all the kinds of food that you ever saw

each kind of food

is

were brought together so people could walk about and look and buy whatever they chose. They might find the food arranged in five great booths, so that each one contained the kinds of food that would do the same kinds of work in the body. In the first booth would be the fruits and vegetables, whose greatest value to us is in regulating the body. In the second would be milk, meat, cheese, and other foods that furnish proMilk is useful in tein, a very important building food. other ways that it might almost be put in every booth. In the third there would be chiefly cereals, such as wheat, oats, and rye. These, too, contain protein, and they also contain much starch, the so

many

cheapest kind of body fuel. In the fourth booth would be sugar and different kinds of sweets, fuel foods that we like for their flavor. In the fifth booth would be

ABOUT FRUIT AND VEGETABLES butter and

important

bacon,

fuel foods

15

and other fats. These are and they also make our food taste

oils,

good. In a city small boys and girls are often sent to market to buy the food for the family. "They know what

they are about/' the clerks say, "and they get their money's worth." Imagine, then, some of these children with a market basket visiting each booth and selecting the day's food for their home. At the first booth, they would find all the kinds of There would be fruits and vegetables ever heard of. apples, pears, plums, cherries, oranges, lemons, and pineapples, all the varieties of grapes that ever grew

on vines and bushes reason

the kinds of berries that ever grew on an imaginary fair like this there is no there should not be fruit from every country all

for in

why

and of every season. plenty of dried

fruit,

Of course there would such as

figs, raisins,

also be

apricots,

and

prunes. At the

same booth, there would be vegetables of all Green corn and carrots, spinach, celery, kinds. salsify, lettuce, potatoes and sweet potatoes, onions, string beans, green peas, okra and cabbages, and all

the other vegetables that ever grew in gardens or fields. There would be dried ones, too, for people are beginning to discover that they can dry vegetables as well as fruits, and if ever such a fair as this becomes a reality,

there will be a great display of vegetables which will need nothing but water to make them ready to be

16

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

cooked for the table. Boxes of dried carrots or potatoes or peas do not look quite so warlike as a machine gun, but they, as well as the gun, have helped to win the war. process of drying made it possible to preserve the products of our gardens and farms, and dried vegetables take up so little room and weigh so little that they

The

can be carried across the ocean far more easily than fresh ones.

In these fruits and vegetables mineral matter is found, especially lime and iron. These mineral sub-

the processes going on in the body, and an important part of their work is helpIf you leave a bone ing to make bones and teeth. in weak acid, such as vinegar, for a few days, the acid stances are necessary to

will eat

all

most of the mineral matter out of

it.

The

will look much the same, but if you take hold of you will find that it will bend almost like rubber and can actually be tied in a knot. This shows how bones behave if they do not have enough lime to keep them stiff. Children's bones have a hard time in one way. They have not nearly so much mineral matter as those of grown folk, and therefore they are far more

bone

it,

If a little child walks likely to be bent out of shape. contain his before the bones of enough mineral legs

matter to strengthen them so they will hold up the weight of his body, he may become bow-legged. In another way, the bones of children have a great advantage. They do not break easily, and if one does break, it will soon knit, or grow together again, while if an

ABOUT FRUIT AND VEGETABLES elderly person breaks a bone,

may

it

17

never knit at

all.

Mineral matter fruit or a

is

often found in

vegetable more than

some one part of a

in other parts.

much

In the

the layer why potatoes ought to be pared as thinly as possible or the baked skin eaten. In any case, to throw away thick potato parings and buy other starch and mineral food is behaving like the woman who paid one man ten cents a barrel to carry potato, for instance, there next to the skin. This is

is

of

it

in

and wooden boxes, and on the same day paid his brother ten cents a barrel to bring her bits of wood for kindlings. Not only do the fruits and vegetables supply us with mineral matter, but they make our food more bulky, and this is an aid to good digestion. Fruits and vegeoff her old fruit baskets

tables are useful, too, in giving us water, and we need much water, more indeed than most people are accus-

tomed to

drink.

Sixty pounds of the

child consists of water.

body of

This

a ninety-

passing out as the breath, constantly through you can see by breathing on a cold window pane, and through the tiny pores of the skin, but more in summer than in

pound

winter; and

When you

we need

is

a large quantity to take its place.

are thirsty,

it is

not only your throat, but

your whole body, that is calling for water. There is no water in sugar, starch, or lard, but there is in almost all other kinds of food, even where one would hardly think of looking for it. In wheat flour, for

1

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

8

example, there

a good deal. If you should keep ten pounds of wheat flour in a warm oven for a while it would weigh a little less than nine pounds when you took it out. The lost pound was water, and it has is

evaporated. Any one can see, even without testing the statement, that there is much water in fruit and vegetables. Grapes are nearly four-fifths water, tomatoes and celery more than nine-tenths.

because fruit and vegetables contain so much water that they are difficult to transport, for not only do they spoil easily, but they are heavy and take up It is

too much room. That is one reason why, in these days, when there is double work for every ship, we are asked to eat them as much as possible, so that the more con-

may be sent abroad. Entirely aside from the needs of the countries that have been at war, however, they are an extremely valuable food. In the old fairy tales, there was always one fairy who was forgotten and who made everything go wrong becentrated foods

cause she was not invited to go to the wedding or the There is a class of substances called vitachristening.

mines which are somewhat

like the revengeful fairy.

are present in certain kinds of food in minute Little is known about the vitamines, but quantities.

They

known is of the utmost importance, for it is that certain they are necessary to life and health. There are two kinds. A good deal of one kind is found what

is

in butter, the yolk of eggs, and in the leafy vegetables, such as lettuce, spinach, and dandelions. The other

ABOUT FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

19

kind is found in a great many kinds of food, especially Both are in vegetables, in fruit, and in whole cereals. found in milk. They, like the fairy, should never be forgotten at the feast. know fairly well

We

how much

people should eat of as yet found out

some kinds of food; but no one has

we need. One thing that and fruits sure, namely, vegetables which contain them are a most valuable kind of food, and everybody, except babies, should have at least one pound a

how much

just

of the vitamines

is

They

day.

are so largely water that there

is

very

little

danger of any one's eating too much of them, but in any case, it is better to eat too much of these foods

than too little and the children with the market basket can hardly buy too freely at this booth. worth remembering: first of the five great groups of fruit and vegetables.

It is

That the

is

composed

That we need, especially for the making of teeth and bones, the mineral matter supplied by fruit and vegetables, and milk. That if we use fruits and vegetables and milk freely we are quite sure to get enough of the vitamines that are needed to

That

make us

grow.

and vegetables also help to supply us with water, and add to our food the bulk which is

fruit

needed in digestion.

That fresh

fruit and vegetables are so hard to we that can help by using those that grow ship near home.

CHAPTER

IV

FOODS THAT HELP BUILD THE BODY After the children with the market basket have se-

and vegetables they will next come to with eatables which look as if they had never seen one another before and were surprised to find themselves in the same company. Some are in lected their fruit

a booth

filled

bottles, some in jars or in their own natural shells, some are in wooden boxes or cartons and rattle around whenever they are stirred, and some stand out boldly in all sorts of shapes, ready to be sliced and sold. Perhaps you have guessed that the bottles hold milk, that the jars and shells hold oysters and clams, that the boxes and cartons hold dried beans and peas and nuts, and that the food all ready to be sliced off is great beef, mutton, pork, veal, and other pieces of meat kinds. Besides these, there are eggs, cheese, and fish. It

is

certainly a queer collection at this second booth, and oysters, or pork and nuts, or beans and

for eggs

21

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

22

much to do with each other. In one respect, however, all these foods are alike; namely, they all contain a good deal of a substance cheese, have not often

It is by no means easy to extract the mineral matter from fruit and vegetables, but it is a simple matter for any one to get protein. If you live in the country, go to a wheat field, pick some grains

called protein.

chew them. They will soon become and this is one kind of protein. mass; gummy, If you live in a city, far away from fields of wheat, make a stiff dough of some flour and work it with your fingers in a dish of water or under a gentle trickle of ripe wheat and a

elastic

from a faucet until the starch is washed out; and what remains of the dough is the same kind of protein as that obtained from the wheat kernels. Aside from the water in them, lean meat, cottage cheese and the white of egg are almost entirely protein. Dried beans and peas, peanuts and lentils, although really vegetables, contain so

much that they belong in this group. The soy

bean, which is

now

raised in

one-third

came

Japan and China, and large quantities in America, is more than

first

protein.

to us from

Fish

contains almost as

much

as

meat, while milk and cheese are the best protein foods we have. The chief business of protein is to supply material A child who does not have as for growth and repair. protein as he needs will become stunted. The a grown person does not increase in height like of body that of a child, but it is subject to constant wear and

much

FOODS THAT HELP BUILD THE BODY tear s and

if

23

to replace what has been not take so very long for an active

there were no

worn

way

out, it would person to use up his body.

A boy who goes barefooted summer does not wear out the soles of his feet, or rather, what he does wear off is replaced; but he would all

wear out more than one pair of shoes if he gave them the same treatment that he gave his feet. Shoes wear

by the body. an absolutely necessary food. This is what gives it its name, for the word protein means Unluckily, most people make of the first importance. the mistake of thinking that in order to get protein

out, but feet are kept in repair

Protein

is

buy meat; and as meat is usually expensive, they spend much more money in buying it than is at all necessary. If they only knew that cheese food they must

fish and other seafoods, take the place of meat altogether, and that beans, peas, and nuts will do a great deal toward filling its place, they would come home from market with fuller

and eggs and milk, as well as

will

purses.

There is one thing that the children with the market basket should remember when they stand before the that not all proteins which the foods proprotein booth

Some come from animals and some from Some can supply all the protein needs of

vide are alike. vegetables.

the body, some only part of them. That is why, if we eat milk, cheese, eggs, or fish, we can do without meat altogether; but if we depend upon beans and peas,

we need some

milk, or eggs, or

meat

besides.

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

24 Fish

is

an excellent substitute for meat; but

we have

it

is

a

many whims and prejudices about it, and fancy that a new kind of fish cannot be good because we have never heard of it before. If you make pity that

a

list

so

of the kinds offish that you are accustomed to eat, it a very short one, and yet there are at

will find

you

seventy kinds of salt water fish and thirty of water fish that we might be using as food. A number of these that we do not know are fully as good least

fresh

as those that

we

are accustomed to eating.

Besides

we have

salted, and dried, and canned fish. Many other countries use much more fish than we. We eat on an average only about one-third of a pound a week each, and most of us eat it only one day a week. Canadians average more than one pound, and English people average one and one-fourth pounds. It is foolish and narrow minded to be afraid to try new kinds. Milk is one of the best protein foods we have, the this

very best for children. People often think of milk as a drink rather than a food because it is a liquid; but they ought to learn that a glass of milk has as much protein as a large egg or one and one-third ounces of meat. Many people look upon milk as merely a luxury, and therefore they are ready to strike it out of their fare if its price rises. It is a pity that they do not understand how necessary a food milk is. Compared with other protein foods it is not expensive. Do you know that when milk is fifteen cents a quart and eggs sixty cents a dozen, a quarter of a dollar will

buy more

FOODS THAT HELP BUILD THE BODY

25

protein in the form of milk than in that of eggs, and as as in beef at thirty-five cents a pound ? Milk,

much

too, contains fat

body needs.

and sugar and other things that the a better source of lime than any

It is

other food, besides containing the substances called vitamines that we have just begun to know about.

Every boy and girl ought to have at least a pint of milk a day, and every child under six should use a quart, while grown people should have some every day. Buy milk and save money is a good slogan for the housekeeper.

Even

in skim milk and in buttermilk most of the and milk sugar and the greater part of the protein lime of the whole milk are found. Cottage cheese, even when made of skim milk, is a good substitute for meat. American cheese, too, may be used in place of meat, and has one advantage over milk in that it is not so bulky. A cube of cheese measuring one and one-fourth inches will furnish about as much protein

as a glass of milk. Unluckily, we are not very sensible our use of cheese. ought to remember that it is

in

We

one of the hearty foods and eat it in place of other protein foods instead of when we have already had enough. Four large eggs contain about an ounce of protein, and so does a quart of milk, or half a cup of cottage cheese, or one and three-fourths cups of baked beans, or one-third of a pound of meat. Certainly, there is no monotony in protein foods and every taste ought to be suited with one or another of them. When the house-

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

26

keeper goes to buy protein foods, however, she must remember that from day to day her family will need variety, and that some of her daily supply of protein should always come from milk. A wise man has said that no family should buy meat until at least a pint of milk has been bought for each

member. It is

worth remembering:

That protein

is found in a great variety of food, both animal and vegetable. That protein supplies food for growth and repair

;

and that it is therefore of the first importance. That there are different kinds of protein and that we need a variety, unless we get enough of the one best kind of protein food, milk. That meat is not necessary if we use the right foods in

its place.

That we ought to use more fish and to learn to know more varieties. That to buy milk is a cheap way to get protein. That every child needs milk each day.

CHAPTER V CEREALS, FOODS RICH IN STARCH If the children are fortunate

enough to

live in

the

country they will feel especially at home when they come to the third booth, for here are the cereals, wheat, rye, corn, rice, oats, barley, and buckwheat, most of

them ground

Of

into flour or meal.

course, these are

not so interesting in their boxes and bags as when they were growing in the fields, but they must be looked upon with profound respect, for throughout the greater part of the world people eat more cereals than any other one kind of food. They are the cheapest of the fuel foods, they are easy to raise, and they are convenient to store

away because they

and they do not

spoil easily.

A

wise

are almost dry

man

that he hated to see anything take up more it

was worth, but he would never have

once said

room than

said that of

cereals.

From

cereals

we

get most of our starchy food, and 27

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

28

the chief business of this is to supply us with energy. It has been kindly planned for us that, even if we cannot get food from the group best adapted to supply

some

may

special need of our bodies, food of another group answer the purpose to some degree. The foods in

the second group are the best providers of protein, but the much of the protein that

cereal foods also will give us

we need. The green things growing are a wise folk. They act as if they understood just what was best for themselves and also for the

little plants that are to a look at kernel of corn, you will you close to the end which see, clings to the cob, a small, yellowish part which often slips out when one is eating

follow them.

If

green corn. This part is called the embryo, or germ, and it contains the life of the kernel. It is always in a

hurry to begin to grow, and if it is only given some water and left quietly in a dark, warm place, it will set to work promptly. Nothing can grow without food, however, plants no more than babies, and the mother plant has looked out for this very moment. The embryo itself contains protein and fat; but she has carefully packed this embryo into the kernel, and most of the kernel is made up of starch and other materials, which are just the proper food to give the embryo energy to push out of the kernel, produce its little roots and leaves, and set up for itself in the world.

This

is

grains.

the early

life

not only of corn, but of

all

the

CEREALS, FOODS RICH IN STARCH

29

In the olden times, beautiful stories arose from the facts of nature, and gradually became part of the They taught their children religion of the people.

that Mother Earth, or Ceres, brought forth grain from the ground for them. They worshipped her and made offerings to induce her to give them generous harvests. They made statues of her as a kind and gracious woman,

bearing a horn of plenty filled to overflowing with golden sheaves of grain. They delighted in the story that Pluto, king of the underworld, once stole away her He gave her little daughter to make her his queen.

the precious treasures that are found in the she was sad and longed for her mother

jewels and

all

earth, but

still

and the sunshine of the upper world; and at length the king of the Gods declared that the little daughter might spend half of every year with Ceres above ground; that is, putting it into the language of to-day, the kernel of grain spends part of the year underground and part It is perhaps because of this in the air and sunshine. myth of Ceres that we picture autumn, the harvest time, as a woman bearing sheaves of grain or ears of Whittier wrote: corn.

"Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard! Heap high the golden corn! No richer gift has Autumn poured From out her lavish horn!"

The grains take their name of cereals from Ceres. To us corn means Indian corn or maize, but it is really

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

30

another

name

for

gram, and

in

other countries

is

often

most familiar there. To an "ear of corn "would mean aheadof many Englishmen wheat; to the Scotchman, oats; to the Scandinavian, rye. In the Old Testament story of Joseph's brothers coming to Egypt to buy "corn" because there was a famine in their own country, "corn" means wheat or millet, and not the maize of America. Originally "corn" meant kernel, and this is its meaning in the words of Jesus, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and given to the kind of grain that

die, it

is

abideth alone."

good manufacturers of starch, but they need sunshine, and our American corn especially needs the sun. That is why hot, sunny days are called "good corn weather." The starch in cereals is into cells with thin walls of celtiny closely packed lulose, the substance that gives plants their form and The stems are older than the stiffens their stems. and contain more cellulose; that is therefore, twigs, Cereals are

all

they are stiffer, just as young radishes are tender, but as they grow older, they form more of this substance and become tough. We do not digest cellulose readily, but some things are useful even if they are not digested. Cellulose is one of them, for it helps food to move on through the entire digestive tract. Cereals are easy to cook, but they do need to be cooked a long time. This is because the little cells must be swelled with heat and moisture till they spread apart and their walls break down and set free the tiny

why

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

32

To save time in cooking, many grains of starch. the people buy prepared cereals that are half cooked or entirely cooked before they are put on the market. What are called "rolled oats" are oats steamed and

then crushed between heavy rollers, in order to break down the walls of the cells and set the starch free. There is very little difference in the amount of starch or other materials contained in the different cereals.

We

have

fallen into the habit of using

wheat

forms more than the other grains, chiefly because it makes lighter raised bread, but it is not at all necessary, and the others will fill its place in the work of feeding the body. Some fruits and many vegetables contain starch, in its various

though not

The

in nearly so large quantities as the grains.

legumes, for instance, peas, beans,

peanuts,

besides

attending

makers of protein, Another name starch. as

also

to

their

lentils,

chief

and

business

manufacture considerable

for the legumes is the butterblossoms look like little buttertheir because fly plants, These pretty little flies with their wings spread. plants work hard to make food for us. They are no

"slackers."

Some

of the fruits and vegetables which manufacture starch as well as sugar contain both substances at the

same time, and sometimes one changes into the other. Bananas and apples contain much starch when they are young and green, and much sugar when they are That is why they can be eaten cooked before older.

CEREALS, FOODS RICH IN STARCH

33

they are ripe enough to eat raw. There is a pretty experiment that can be tried with apples and a few drops of weak iodine, showing the change of starch Cut a half-ripe apple in two at right into sugar. angles with the stem, and put a little iodine on the Whenever starch meets iodine, it turns blue; surface.

and the surface of this apple

will turn to a deep, rich the same thing later in the season, and although the apple will be blue, it will not be of nearly so deep a shade. By and by, when the apple is ripe,

blue.

you

Do

out hardly a the apple has changed its

will find that the iodine will bring

That

trace of color.

is,

starch into sugar. In the shortage of grain, the potato is an excellent The potato is a tuber, that is, a part of substitute.

the stem which grows underground, thickens, and forms a storehouse which is filled with starch. Every "eye"

capable of becoming a plant, and in the first place, the potato probably contained only what starch the

is

eyes would need for their own growth. We have cultivated the potato, however, and so increased the

amount of

A

starch that

potato

is

commonplace

it is

now

of

much value

for food.

really very interesting, not nearly so

as

it

looks.

The

courtly Sir Walter

Raleigh thought potatoes a gift fit to bestow upon a queen, and more than three hundred years ago he is said to have taken some from America to give to Queen Elizabeth.

middle of a

If you cut a thin slice crosswise from the raw potato and hold it up to the light, you

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

34

will see that

Next less

it

is

not the same

to the skin there

that

is

is

all

the

way

through.

a layer half an inch thick or

more nearly transparent than the

rest.

From

the middle of the potato, irregular rays stretch out toward the skin in a sort of star. The sweet

potato contains much sugar, but the greater part of both white and sweet potatoes is made up of little irregular cellulose,

rooms or cells, the walls of which are made of and each cell is a tiny storeroom full of

starch.

Chewing even

raw potato

break open the cells but of course the potato and starch, becomes far more palatable if it is cooked. There is much water in a potato, and heat will expand it and break the cells apart, and the little grains of starch will swell; and now the tuber is more fit for food and set free

a

will

much of this

supply of energy. If you happen Scout, and know how to cook without a stove, you can roast potatoes out of doors, but you will not carry them on a mountain trip, because they con-

will give a generous

to be a

Boy

much water

that they are very heavy in proportion to the amount of nourishment in them. That is why potatoes are not so good to send across the tain so

ocean as the grains, which contain almost solid food. It is

little

water and are

worth remembering:

That most of our starchy food comes from cereals. That cereals are the cheapest source of energy; but must be thoroughly cooked.

CEREALS, FOODS RICH IN STARCH That there

is

35

little difference in the food value of

the various cereals.

That some

fruits and vegetables manufacture starch as well as sugar. That the potato is a good substitute for grain. That if you' eat more peas and beans you will not need so much bread.

Counting the Full Sap Buckets

in

Maple Sugar Time

CHAPTER

VI

SUGAR AND SWEETS The fourth booth in many children will like

the great fair is the one that best, for here is sugar of every

kind that you ever heard of cane sugar, beet sugar, maple sugar, and even sugar of milk. There are also substitutes for sugar, .such as honey, molasses, glucose, and corn sirup. Besides these, there are preserves and jam, and there are more kinds of candy than you ever

imagined even in a dream of fairyland. Sugar is so agreeable that we are often inclined to eat

it in too large quantities or at the wrong time. Children are often told that if they eat sugar before dinner, it will "spoil their appetite." This is because

eating

it

makes you

feel as if

thing more, even though be in need of other food.

We

eat sugar quite as

because

we need

it.

We

all

you did not care for anythe time your body may

much because we like it as can get from fruit and vege37

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

38

tables, especially dried fruit, all that

we

really require,

though our food would not be so appetizing without

some

sugar.

In one way, however, sugar is of great value as a You know that soldiers sometimes carry an food.

"emergency

ration," which

is

not to be used unless

their regular supply of food has given out. Sugar is a emergency ration. If you are climbing a moun-

sort of

lump of sugar or a few raisins now and then will Soldiers find that they can stand a hard help you on. march better if they have sugar. Of course some other food, like bread, for instance, or a baked potato, would tain, a

answer the purpose; but they have no time to stop and cook, and if they had, these foods would take a longer time to digest and yield energy. Then, too, soldiers like it, and it makes up to them in part for the sweet dessert most of them have had at home. These are two reasons why we have had to be as saving of sugar as possible, in order to send it to them. When people speak of sugar, they usually have in mind a bowl of white granulated sugar, but this is by no means fair to the other varieties. Nearly all our sugar comes from plants. Until about a century ago, all granulated sugar was made from the sugar cane. This is really a kind of grass, but a grass that might in a

country of giants, for it is ten or fifteen feet sometimes even twenty. The juice or sap is so sweet that children and grown-up people, too like to suck bits of the stalk.

grow

in height,

SUGAR AND SWEETS These stalks are crushed rollers to

in a mill

squeeze out the juice.

39

and passed between

Solids are filtered out,

then the liquid is boiled several times, the sugar crystalThis gives lizing after each boiling and being removed. what is called raw sugar. It is brown, and to make it white it has to be washed and filtered through a special kind of charcoal made from bone, and then crystallized This is what we call refining it. The refined again. sugar is of a slightly creamy color, and sometimes it is blued to

make

it

look white.

If

you examine

a

few

grains through a magnifying glass, you will find that each grain is a little crystal. Molasses is what is called

"by-product" of sugar-making.

It contains a large sugar, but to get all this sugar into a crystallized form is a thing thai: the ordinary methods of

a

amount of

sugar-making have not yet succeeded in doing. Molasses is rich in lime, and so is better than sugar for

growing children. Sugar is also made from large, sweet beets. These are cut into slices, and the juice is extracted and purified. Then the liquid is evaporated, and a sugar results which is exactly the same thing as cane sugar. It will make jelly and do everything else that cane sugar will do. Before the war, the French raised large quantities of sugar beets; but France's beet-bearing lands have been partly in the hands of the enemy or within the fighting zone and now, even though they have been recovered, they will be in no condition for agriculture for a long time to come.

Sugar Cane

SUGAR AND SWEETS

41

The same kind

of sugar comes from one kind of maple About tree that grows in many parts of this country. the maple there is a charming story that, when one day

the Lord of the Green Things Growing came to visit his garden, the plants were all eager to make him some

The rose and the lily gave their blossoms; the and the orange and the nut trees gave their fruit apple and were happy. The maple alone was troubled, for she had neither blossoms nor fruit to give him. At last she said sadly, "I have no beautiful blossoms and no delicious fruit, but I will gladly give you my own gift.

heart's blood."

legend, that the

And first

To make maple

that

is

the way, according to the

maple sugar came into being;

sugar, a hole

is

bored a

little

way

into

the tree and a "spile" pushed in. Through this spile the sap trickles down into a bucket, then is poi red into a kettle or a modern evaporator, and some of the

water boiled out, leaving maple syrup. Evaporating more of the water will leave a mushy but deliciouswet brown sugar; and what remains after still more evaporating is poured into moulds, and soon cakes of

"new maple sugar"

are for sale in the stores.

Maple

sugar could be refined and made white, but it would lose the characteristic flavor which people like so well.

Another kind of sugar is found in honey. In ancient times, before people had learned how to get sugar from plants, honey was very much prized because it was their only sweetening, and a land "flowing with milk and honey" was their way of describing a rich and fertile

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

42 country.

To

offer a guest

milk and honey was a special

courtesy. People of those times were very particular where their honey came from, and the ancient poets

had much to say about the wonderfully good quality of thatfrom a mountain in Greece named Hymettus. Honey still comes from that mountain, and it is exceedingly good; but persons who have tried it and also the honey made in America from the blossoms of basswood, or of white clover, say that the American honey is fully as delicate.

A kind

of sugar called glucose

and vegetables, and

is

found

also in honey.

in

many

fruits

so

much

There

is

grapes that it is sometimes called grape sugar. One form of this kind of sugar is made from the starch of corn, and is called corn sugar when it is sold in the in

solid form, or corn sirup

common

use in

in canning.

when

confectionery,

it

is

jelly,

liquid.

It is of

preserves,

It is used, too, as a table sirup.

In

and

many

made from potato starch. In parts of our country a sirup is made from sorghum, a plant that has been known in China for many centuries. Many farmers in a community will grow a

countries the

same sugar

is

held of sorghum cane, which

is

not unlike the sugar cane

in appearance. One farmer will set up the mill and for his neighbors. The cane comes to this cane grind

the mill heaped high in large wagons and the product is returned to the farmers in the large cans or vats

provided for the purpose. The mill is a simple affair erected out of doors and turned by a horse or mule

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

44

walking round and round, but it grinds the cane under heavy pressure and forces out the greenish, strongtasting juice.

The

sirup

is

boiled in a series of large

pans supported on bricks over a fire, and so arranged that the sirup as it boils runs over from the higher into the lower pans, leaving behind the impurities and becoming clearer. When it flows from the last pan it is Ribbon cane clear and thick and ready for table use. prepared in many places in the south in the same way. Not only sugar cane and beets and maple trees contain sugar in their sap, but many other plants and some of the vegetables that we use commonly. The chief difficulty is that there is not enough in them to make it worth while to extract it for the market. Fruits, especially sun-dried fruits, contain a good deal of sugar. Raisins, for instance, which will often take the place of sirup

is

sugar, are exceedingly sweet, and they are merely grapes dried in the sun, and contain only the sugar that was in

them

in

raisins in figs

the

first

place.

Cakes and desserts that have Dates and so much sugar.

them do not need

are also good to use in place of sugar.

While most of our sugar comes from plants, some is found in the animal kingdom. If skim milk or whey is boiled till most of the water is evaporated, and is allowed to stand quietly for a while, tiny crystals form and drop to the bottom of the dish. This is milk sugar. To make one quart It is an expensive kind of sugar. of

it

takes at least

twenty quarts of milk.

It

is

SUGAR AND SWEETS

45

not so sweet as ordinary sugar. Sugar of milk is ever given small If are medicines. in used you dry pills that taste rather sweet, you may be almost sure that they are ever medicine It is

made is

of sugar of milk mixed with whatneeded. It is used too for babies' food.

worth remembering:

That sugar should be eaten in small quantities and never before meals. That sugar is of value chiefly as an "emergency ration' and to make other foods palatable. That sweet fruits will give us much of the sugar we need, and other important things as well. That many fruits and some vegetables contain sugar, but only a few of them in sufficiently large quantities to pay for extracting. 7

CHAPTER FATS

VII

AND FATTY FOODS

If children are asked if they like fat, they usually say "no" very scornfully, for "fat" means to them the fat which comes on meat, or the blubber of whales that is eaten by the Esquimaux of the frozen

North; and yet the average amount of fat eaten, or wasted, every day by people in this country is about five and one-half ounces, more than a quarter of a pound, and most children as well as grown people would think it pretty hard if they had to do without

it.

When

the children

who

come to the booth of

are

doing the marketing

fats, what will they see? They will see a good supply of more appetizing articles than pieces of fat meat and blubber. They will see rich, sweet cream, golden butter, bacon, and nuts, as well as suet, nut oils, lard, and dripping. Chocolate and butter and be here too. cocoanut will peanut Surely, 4-7

48

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

the children will find something for their market basket which they will really like. The most common form in which fat appears on the table is butter, the fat of milk. Fat is lighter than the rest of the milk, so it rises to the top in the form of cream and is skimmed off. Then it is poured into a churn and kept in motion with a dasher or paddle-wheel until the butter

"comes," that is, until the fat has from the rest of the milk and is floating about separated the buttermilk in tiny masses. The motion is what causes the separation, and many a time a bottle of cream taken to a picnic in a carriage or automobile has reached the picnic grounds in the shape of butter. A few years ago, there was in the Patent Office in

Washington a model of an odd sort of churn, on which some inventive genius had applied for a patent. It was in the

shape of a rocking chair which, instead of arms, had cylinders. These were to be filled with cream;

then the butter maker was to sit down in the chair and rock comfortably until the butter had come. After the fat has separated from the rest of the milk,

worked and washed to make sure that the buttermilk is out of it; then it is salted and is now ready to be Of course creameries do all this work by maeaten. it is

chinery, but it is not at all difficult to make a little butter with a bowl of cream and an egg-beater, and it will taste just as good as if it came from the best of

creameries.

The

things nearest like butter are oleomargarine

FATS

AND FATTY FOODS

49

and nut margarine. Oleomargarine is made chiefly of the fat of beef mixed with extra pure lard and cottonseed oil and churned up with milk. It is therefore Nut margaa mixture of animal and vegetable fats. rine

is

made

of vegetable

oils,

such as cocoanut, cotton-

and peanut. Twoplants produce a large quantity of oil. fifths of the flesh of the olive is oil, and there is even more than that amount in the kernel. Cottonseed Even corn and oat meal contain is one-fourth oil. some fat. The kernel of the peanut is nearly twoCocoanut contains a great deal. The nut thirds oil. trees are so successful in their oil manufacture that if they were men, they would surely make their fortunes. If you put a thin slice of almost any nut between two pieces of paper and strike it lightly with a hammer, the paper will show a greasy mark. Nuts are usually eaten at precisely the wrong time, for nuts, like all fats, are highly concentrated food, and seed,

Some

them as dessert after a hearty dinner almost as foolish as it would be to eat a dessert of Nuts should roast pork after a dinner of roast beef. to eat a saucer of

is

not be eaten just for flavor after a meal, but as part ot the meal itself, and as a substantial food. Since fat

is

to be found in so

many

different places

many varieties, any one whose taste cannot be suited by one kind or another must be hard to please. In a tablespoonful of butter there is about half an ounce of fat; but if you do not care to eat the butter. and

in so

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

So

get the same amount by eating an inch cube of or cheese, twenty-nine peanut kernels, or better still a Surely every one ought to be satisfied. pint of milk.

you can

Fat

is

too concentrated a food to be eaten by

itself.

We

put butter on bread, cream on cereals, and salad oil on lettuce; but not many people in a temperate climate care to eat a whole mouthful of fat meat or to drink

Often we cook our fats, using them for a cup of oil. Food that is fried has often shortening or in frying. a particularly rich flavor, but frying needs more skill than other methods of cooking if the food is to be readily

Did you ever see a doughnut digested and palatable. that was soggy and would leave a big stain of grease if laid on a piece of paper because it had not been were soaked in grease of and ? instead crisp being dry Fat is sometimes spoken of as "hearty food," since it enables us to do hard work without a "gone feeling." fried properly, or potatoes that

This

is

because

it

stays in the stomach a long time. empty a while, it begins to

After the stomach has been

make remarks on

the situation, and the possessor of slice of the stomach feels a sensation of hunger. bread with butter on it keeps off this sensation much

A

longer than the bread alone. On the other hand, if one has eaten too much fat, one's stomach feels uncomfortable and overloaded. Most people make the

mistake of thinking that for a hearty food they must buy meat, but this is far from being true, for it is chiefly the fat in the meat which makes it a heartv food and

FATS AND FATTY FOODS

5r

this can be obtained in other ways. People who are doing hard work need hearty or, as we sometimes say,

concentrated food.

This

is

why we had

to save fat as

much

as possible in order to send it to the fighting men. Whether fats are solid or liquid makes no difference in their value as food. So far as that goes, a Brazil

nut or a little olive oil answers the same purpose. There is one thing that makes a real difference between the different kinds of fat. One kind of the vitamines that we talked about when we were visiting the fruit and vegetable booth is found in connection with fat, though only some fats contain it. This necessary for growth, so if we are not getting it in some other way we must be particular about the kind of fat is

we

Milk fat (butter) contains it and so does and most animal fats, though lard does not. egg yolk, It has not been found in most Vegetable oils, though corn oil has it. If we have plenty of milk and of leafy vegetables we do not need to think very much about choose.

we shall be quite sure to get enough. the time that the boys and girls with the market By basket have finished their buying, they will have colthis, for

lected a good deal of valuable information about prices and kinds of food. On their next trip, they can start

about their marketing in a more businesslike way, keeping it in mind that in order to make sure of proper nourishment for their family, part of their food for each day should come from each booth. How much

money

to spend

is

a question that affects almost every-

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

52

one, and the best way to decide this is by making a "budget," as a well managed factory would, or just

Government does for its expenditures. After learning how much money can be spared for food each week, this should be divided among the five groups, not haphazard, but wisely and after careful as the British

planning. Supposing that in a household consisting of father, mother, and two children, it has been found that $10 a week can be devoted to food, a good plan

would be

to divide this among the five food groups, aside first a special share for milk. If the family setting lived in the city and everything had to be bought, the

food budget might read somewhat like this: Milk

$ 2 20 2 20 .

Vegetables and fruit Proteins eggs, cottage

.

cheese,

American cheese,

fish,

meat, dried beans, etc Cereals, including bread

2

.

20

2 .00

Sugar or other sweetening

.30

80

Fats Sundries

.30

TOTAL If the father,

$10 oo .

mother and two children together

re-

quire as much food as three men doing moderately hard, muscular work, then their day's food supply might well be something like this: Fruit and vegetables (including potatoes) at least

5

Milk, at least

2 quarts

pounds

FATS

AND FATTY FOODS

53

Eggs, legumes, meat, cheese, about Cereals (including breadstuff's) about or less of these and more potatoes Sweets

i to ^

Fats

\ to \ pound

I

3

pound pounds

pound

A wise choice of food is always an important matter, because upon this depends in so great a degree our health and our ability to do our share of the work of was especially important in the days of warfare, because America had to provide so much food the world.

It

not only for herself but also for those who, together with her, were fighting for the freedom of the world.

even more important in these days of reconstruction, of building up the world anew, and of trying to make it a better world than we have ever had before. It

is

It is

worth remembering: fat exists in many forms. fat is a hearty food, too concentrated to be

That That

eaten by

itself.

That at least a part of our fatty food should come from milk or butter or from some other substance that contains the kind of vitamine found with

That

fat.

to spend wisely

plan.

we should make a

careful

American Clothes and Real Milk Have Been Furnished to

European Children

Many

CHAPTER

VIII

HUNGRY EUROPE In one of the magazines published during the war there are

some verses

in

which an American baby

is

supposed to speak. He tells of the good times that he had and at the end he says: fat and rosy and stuffed and pampered and happy, and maybe There's anything you can think of better to be than an American

I'm

baby.

Then another

little one speaks, a French baby, thin and troubled, and with sad questioning eyes. His father has been killed in the war, and he tells what a lonesome time he has while his mother is gone to work all all

day. He tells of the miserable grass tea that she has to give him to eat. Then he says:

Once

in a blue

moon,

Called the cure,

who

is

there's a large, deep-voiced Person in Black brings me real milk just a little, but, oh,

isn't it fine!

55

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

56

And when

I

see

it

coming,

warm and

white, I'm in such a hurry

whimper and whine. For pure joy, and the Cure smiles that

I

a bit, watching me, and says I'm the hope of France; But how can a chap be the hope of France when he can't get enough food to have a chance?

Before the war, the little French babies had enough to eat, most of it raised at home and not brought in

from other countries.

France contains a large number

of small farms, and nearly every one of them was cultivated by the family that owned it. These farmers were anxious of course to have as good crops as possible.

They were

in general wide-awake people, and had no idea of carrying on their farms just as their grandfathers had done. They kept their eyes open for new methods

and as soon as they found one that was an improvement on their own, they adopted it. The result was that France raised more of her own food than any other of She raised more than one-third the western Allies. as much wheat as the United States, and she cultivated She raised horses great quantities of sugar beets. and sheep, but grass land was not ample enough to feed There were, however, vinelarge numbers of cattle. there were peaches and cherries without number; yards and oranges and lemons, andwherevernothing elsewould grow, there were chestnut trees, and of the chestnuts some of the thrifty French people made an excellent The French are never wasteful, and they do much flour. with a little. France was well-fed, busy, and happy.

HUNGRY EUROPE

57

Then came the war, and everything was changed. In 1917, France raised less than half as much wheat as usual, less than two-thirds as

only one-third as

much

many

sugar. sheep, and hogs had greatly decreased.

war bring In the

this

first

potatoes, and

Her numbers of

How

cattle,,

did the

about? place, there

All able-bodied

were no men to work

in

the

Frenchmen were

either fighting, or to making munitions, helping transport soldiers and guns and supplies. The men left at home were those who were too old and feeble to do much work, the fields.

wounded

soldiers,

and the

sick.

Then, too, there were

Some of the richest formerly. many land in the country was either in the hands of the Germans or had been overrun by them. not so

fields as

War always means destruction, but military commanders of other nations are proud of not injuring non-combatants and of doing no harm to the country through which they pass other than that which will be of military value to them. Roads and railroads must often be destroyed, wires and cables torn down, sometimes wells blown up; but the Germans set to work deliberately to do as much harm as possible. They demolished famous buildings and works of art; they burned villages and towns; they bombed hospitals; they cut down fruit trees and vineyards; they poisoned wells, and did

who

many

other cruel things.

The

result

is

that people

struggled back to their old homes found only cinders for houses and waste land for cultivated fields.

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

58

These people shelter themselves as best they can, but it is easier to put together something for a rough protection against the weather than to raise wheat in a field

that has been torn to pieces

by

shells.

But. the

women have done wonders. Wherever it was possible, a woman has always been ready to take the place of a man so that the man might help to defend the country. The women have cared for their children French

they have toiled at all kinds of labor in and workrooms, caring not what it was or whether it was hard or easy, if only it would help France. They have ploughed and planted and reaped. Sometimes a few soldiers could be allowed to come home to help in harvesting, and sometimes prisoners of war have been of service in the farm work; but the greater part of the labor of raising food has been done by the French women with the aid of the aged and the

and the

sick,

factories

children.

France needed more food than before. The bravest troops cannot do their best when they are hungry, and whoever went without, the soldiers had to be fed. And then there were the Frenchmen who had been captured and who were starving in German prison camps. Food had to be sent to them if" their lives were to be saved. The weather was unfavorable and the crops failed, but still the brave French women kept on, weary and suffering, but not complaining. In France to-day, butter, cheese, meat, and even potatoes

are

enormously dear.

The only

food that

HUNGRY EUROPE everybody can afford to buy

ment has kept the

is

59

bread.

price of bread low; but

The Governit is

rationed,

and a ten-ounce ration card does not always mean that In its holder can get in exchange the full ten ounces. some of the mountain districts, what bread can be bought is black and has a disagreeable odor. It is made of chestnut flour mixed with oats, barley, and a little buckwheat. There have been no invaders on English soil as on that of France, but the British have been in the trenches, or on warships in the North Sea, or convoying troops, or making munitions in one or another of the 5,000 war factories of England. Here, too, as in France, women have stepped into the vacant places. They have acted as conductors on trains, as porters at railroad stations. They have toiled in munition factories. The petted daughters of noblemen have worked twelve hours a day side by side with women who have known nothing but toil all their lives; and they have all lived together in little villages built close to the factories. The beautiful velvety turf of England has been ploughed up and the great parks turned into potato fields; and here too, women have been hard at work. In spite of the labor shortage more food was raised on English soil the last year of the war than ever before.

Nevertheless, food

is

not plentiful.

One

sort of food

another has grown scanty, then disappeared. Fats in general are scarce. There is only a little milk, and that is saved for the children and the sick. Turn-

after

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

60

ing grass land into potato fields is better to supply food for the people, but it is not good for the keeping of

cows, and

many have been

killed.

Everyone knows the brave and

victorious struggle

that Italy has made at the front, but not everyone realizes that her fight with hunger has been just as

Even to-day, her bread and meat and sugar brave. what she can get of them are of poorer quality than

common

is

any other of the Allied countries. She needs coal almost as badly as food, for part of the time coal has cost $no a ton; and even at that price, the in

railroads could hardly get enough to keep running. If she only had plenty of coal, what food there is could be distributed over the country; but as it is, even if

there

is

any kind of food in one part of the often no way of getting it to the other

sufficient of

land, there

is

parts.

Belgium was far more helpless than were these other Belgium was what is called a neutralized The little country is not one-fourth as large state. as the State of New York, but it is so situated that any country controlling it could, if she chose, do great harm to England, France, or Germany. That is why these countries, as well as Austria and Russia, all signed a treaty declaring that, no matter what wars might break out, no one of them would ever attack Belgium. Belgium, on her side, promised that she would never countries.

favor any one country to the loss of any other.

Everybody knows what happened when,

in

1914,

HUNGRY EUROPE

61

hundreds of thousands of German troops suddenly swarmed out of the trains at Belgium's frontier and demanded a passage through the country. But Belgium refused to break her promises. She marched Of course out her little army, and how they did fight !

they could not drive the hordes of Germans back, butthey did delay them two full weeks. France and

England had time to get some troops into the field, and Germany's plan to dash into France and perhaps capture Paris before the French could get their troops into position was spoiled. Everyone knows, too, how the German armies behaved after they had made their way into Belgium; how they murdered and tortured and looted and destroyed; how they shelled magnificent old buildings that had been for centuries the pride of the country;

how they burned

village after village because

person was perhaps accused of

some one

firing a single shot at

seized the railroads, telephones, and teleEvery graphs, the canals, the cars, and the mails. little village was cut off from every other. They

them.

They

stopped all business; they carried off to Germany all that there was in the country of oil, wool, copper, rubber anything they could make use of; and then they tore their homes thousands of men, women, and boys, girls and carried them away to toil in the mines and factories of Germany, manufacturing articles that would be used to help overpower their own people. Of course the Germans wanted only the well and

away from

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

62

strong; the old

and

feeble

Little food could be left in

were allowed to remain.

after such treatment, and this was quite according to the plans of the Germans. They were not unwilling that the Belgians should starve. The more that died the better; then the land would be free for them to occupy. Americans promptly sent food to the Belgians, and

Belgium

four months after the beginning of the war the Commission for Relief in Belgium was formed. The wise

work of this Commission and the generous sympathy of the American people and the Allies saved Belgium from starvation. "Never has a country had such But at best the friends," said the Belgian minister. have had to only just enough Belgians keep them alive. More than half of them are still in soup lines. If means of industry and happiness are to be restored to their country, food must be provided in generous quantities.

and Poland are starving; so are Armenia, Finland, and some parts of Russia. Germany swept through Roumania, driving the Rouman-

Roumania,

Serbia,

ians into a small corner of their land, the least fertile of all.

They had no hope

of resisting their foes,

for

enemies were on all sides, and they yielded. But they might almost as well have struggled till every Roumanian had fallen, for here, as well as in Serbia and Poland

and Russia, the German troops seized everything

in

the shape of food that they could find. They searched not only storehouses and stores, but all the little cottages,

and carried away everything that could be eaten.

HUNGRY EUROPE

63

governor-general of Poland commanded that every able-bodied Pole should go to Germany to work for his conquerors. This meant 'that for each

The German

Pole one more

German would be

set free for the

army.

was forbidden for any If a Pole dared to refuse, other Pole, even his own brother, to give him a mouthit

ful of

food

War is

always terrible, and some years ago representatives of the different nations of the world met at The Hague in Holland and signed an agreement never to do certain things which added to its horrors. One of these things was that no conquering army should take supplies from the land it had captured unless it paid for what it took and did not leave the country in want.

Germany signed this agreement, but, as every one of the lands that she has overpowered has learned, In all these countries food for she did not keep it.

man and and

cattle

beast was seized, horses were carried off, and hogs either driven away or killed for food

to supply the invaders. These are the reasons suffering

from hunger,

why so much of Europe is why the countries that have

been crushed by Germany are more helpless than counhave ever been before, and why they appeal to

tries

who are in comfort and "common table."

those

It is

plenty for a share at the

worth remembering:

That France formerly raised more of her own food than any other of the western Allies.

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

64

That much of the fertile land of France was overrun by the Germans. That England, in spite of her labor shortage, has actually

increased

her

production of food,

though she still needs to import a great deal. That Belgium, swept clean of food, raw materials, and machinery, and with her people weakened by captivity, is still in sorest need of a helping hand.

That

and also what food she has.

Italy needs food,

tribute

That many other countries

of

coal to help dis-

Europe must have

help to keep their people from starving.

CHAPTER IX

WHERE

IS

THE FOOD OF THE WORLD?

have not proper food they soon grow thin. This is because the fat stored up in their bodies is being used up to feed them. They can live on it for some If people

time, just as a bear is nourished by the fat in his body during his long winter's sleep; but by and by, even before the fat gives out, the protein is called upon.

By

this

time the person

not far from the point of

is

starvation.

war most

of the world got on fairly well for food. Occasionally there was a famine in one country or. another, but other countries sent ships of pro-

Before the

visions or

money

to

buy

provisions.

In those days

provisions could always be bought somewhere. Why is the condition of things so different

now?

Where

are the grain, the meat, the fish, the fats, and the used to supply Europe? If a country can that sugar raise the

money, why can

it

not buy what

65

it

needs?

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

66

One answer to less

these questions is that there is actually food in the world for millions of men who used to pro;

were called into the armies or to work on munitions, so that less food has been raised. Another answer is that the ground on the Continent which has been fought duce

it

over is now unfit for agriculture. Still another is that few countries, if any, are in the habit of supplying all

own food, and if they are shut off from their usual places of buying, they are as much at a loss as we their

should be

the provision stores should suddenly In of these countries the people have some disappear. been so busy manufacturing that they found it cheaper if all

and easier to import food than to there are so

many

people

sufficient land to raise

Often the

spared. to produce

what

is

raise

it.

In others

in proportion to the area that

what they required could not be

soil

or the climate

is

not adapted

needed.

Then, too, there is the question of fertilizers. In Europe the soil has been cultivated for centuries. The niIt will no longer do well without fertilizers. trates, which are used in fertilizers, are found chiefly in Chile, and these could not be imported during the war. Work animals have been seized by the contending armies or killed because there was no feed for them. As a result of all this, France has raised less than half of the wheat that she needs for her people. Poor Belgium has almost no wheat, and Italy only a part of what she

Though England has increased her production, she has raised only one-fourth enough to supply her people.

needs.

WHERE

IS

THE FOOD OF THE WORLD?

Even before the war, Austria-Hungary enough wheat

for herself,

and had

little

67

raised only

for her neigh-

As for Germany, she imported part of her wheat, and even what she has looted from the lands that she has overrun has not been as much as she requires. Then, too, the crops in these two countries have not been up to the usual mark. Before the war England, Ireland, France, Italy, and bors.

Belgium imported 750,000,000 bushels of wheat in the Russia and Roumania were near at course of a year. hand, both of them fine wheat countries, and a large quantity came from them. But Roumania was overrun by the Germans, her farm-lands were ruined, and she has no wheat or any other food to send to any country, or even to break the famine within her own boundaries.

During the war Turkey closed the Bosphorus; that is, she allowed no ships to pass save those of Germany and Austria, and therefore no wheat could in any case be brought from Russia to the Allies. Russia is in a turmoil; the once fertile Ukraine has been in the hands of the Germans; but even if the whole country were united, many of her own people would still be hungry, for there is no way to carry food from one part of the country to another. Russia in Europe is one-fourth She has millarger than all the rest of the Continent. lions of acres of the best wheat land in the world, but few railroads. However, if the whole land were crisscrossed with railroads, they would be of

little

use be-

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

68

cause of the lack of coal.

Russia's best coal

is

mined

in

the extreme south or in Poland, which only the close of the war released from the hands of the Germans. Australia

and India had hundreds of millions of

bushels of wheat.

Argentina can usually export part of hers to Europe, but her 1917 crop was not so good as usual. Moreover, it is a long way from Australia and India to Europe, and not so very much nearer from Argentina, and during the war the ships were needed to

A ship could transport a good from the United States across the Atthe time that it would take to make a voyage soldiers.

transport

many

soldiers

lantic in

from Australia to England. The Allies in Europe are lacking meat, lost

many

of their cattle.

One reason

for is

they have

that in the

great need of meat, cattle have been slaughtered and used as food. Sometimes this was done because there

was no one to care

for

the trenches cannot

them.

Men who

come home

are fighting in

milk the cows and feed them. Another reason is because much land that has been used for pasture has now been at night to

more grain for the war much fodder was impeople. cattle have had to be killed for and now many ported, ploughed up in the

Even

effort to raise

before the

In Belgium and northern France the invading Germans either killed the cattle or drove them to Germany. Australia and South America would the lack of food.

have been glad to send more beef and mutton, if there had only been some way of providing ships. The

WHERE

IS

THE FOOD OF THE WORLD?

69

United States and Canada have been sending both meat and wheat to the extent of their ability. To lose cattle is of course a great misfortune for grown particularly bad for the children, since the food that they especially need, as it gives

folk,

but

milk

is

them

it is

protein,

sugar,

fats,

lime,

and other mineral

matter, and both kinds of vitamines in abundance. A pint of milk contains as much protein as two eggs, as

much

an ordinary serving of butter, and even more sugar than fat. It also contains lime enough for one day. If more fish could be obtained and if people were willing to try new kinds, it would in some degree take the place Fish contains considerable protein, someof meat. times as much as 22 per cent., and some kinds, such as shad, mackerel, and herring, contain as much fat as is in some cuts of meat, such as lean round steak. The waters about England are swarming with fish, but the country's supply is less than half the usual quantity. One reason is that nearly all of her steam fishing vessels have been taken over by the Navy, and the fishermen of military age have been in service. Another reason is that the North Sea has been so full of mines that it was almost as dangerous as a battlefield; and still another is that the Germans were just as ready to sink a tiny fishing craft even one belonging to a neutral country as a large ship. It is estimated that during the first years of the war, about one-tenth of the food fat as

sent to the Allies

was destroyed by submarines.

If

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

7o

Kipling should write another "Captains Courageous," he might tell a thrilling story indeed.

Pork is needed in Europe even more than beef. The humble pig can no longer be despised, for he has become a highly valued member of society. Pigs are easy to raise. They are not particular about climate, and as for food,

they

will eat

ind'eed, the people

almost anything they can get eat the pig are really more

who

particular about his food than the pig himself is, for of course the nature of his diet affects the quality of

the pork, and in this matter the pig has no concern. An interesting question has arisen in regard to keeping pigs and cattle, namely, whether it is better to eat the grain ourselves or to give it to these animals and then eat them. Protein is valuable, and the pig, for instance, does not give back in the form of pork nearly so

much

protein as

was

in the grain that

he ate; that

the pig is not an economical machine for turning grain into meat, and cattle are still less efficient. On the other hand, in ordinary times more grain is raised is,

is needed for human food. Moreover, pigs are in but fed on not large part on food that grain alone,

than

would not be eaten by people. Another point in favor of pork is that it contains much fat, and all the world is in pressing need of fat. Here the question of shipping comes in. Even if a pig is not an economical machine for making pork, he is the only variety of machine for that purpose yet discovered, and pork is an economical food to send

WHERE

IS

THE FOOD OF THE WORLD?

across the ocean.

When economy

in shipping

is

71 to

we must remember that one hundred will take much less tonnage than would of pork pounds be considered,

be needed to carry the fodder to raise the hundred pounds. After all, pigs really do their best for us. Fat, as has been said before, provides energy; and fried food, even when it does not "soak fat," contains a A doughnut contains from 20 per cent, great deal.

The doughnuts that the lassies to 30 per cent, of fat. of the Salvation Army fry for the soldiers must be remembered with

respect, for they

have helped to

fight

our battles.

Sugar is a good food to send, for it is concentrated and takes little space, and if it does not get wet it will

keep indefinitely.

Before the war there was a

"middle Europe" of sugar beet raising Belgium, northern France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and part of Russia which raised more than nine-tenths of the beet sugar of the world, and England bought more than half her supply from this source. France all during the war h'as continued to produce some sugar, but she has been able to raise only about one-fourth of what she generally needs. Java has been ready to furnish sugar and would gladly furnish it to-day, for she has a large supply on hand; but, as in the case of Australia, the lack of ships has made it impossible to get the sugar from there. As soon as ships are available

Java will send it to these countries. France and England and Italy have done their best and will never

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

72

cease to do their best, but they need food and must

have

A

it.

little

once listened to her mother reading a from a paper. As the mother was turning

girl

pitiful story

the page, the

what

are

you

little girl

asked earnestly, "But mother,

going to do about

'

it

?

worth remembering: That one who is not well nourished cannot do his

It is

work.

That there is less food than usual in the world. That the world demands far greater supplies of food from us than were needed while many peoples were cut off from help by the battle lines.

CHAPTER X

WHAT WE DID ABOUT "What tion that

are

you going

we asked

to do about it?"

ourselves

ings of the Belgians.

IT was the ques-

when we heard

of the suffer-

We

sent ships across the ocean sent strong, wise men to dis-

loaded with food, and we Hundreds of it among the starving people. Belgian children wrote letters to us in the best English

tribute

they could muster

think of their courage in writing

a letter to 105,000,000 people! and told how grateful of these reads as follows: were. letters One they

DEAR AMERICA: I

thank you because you sent great big boats over the great sea rice, corn, bacon, stockings, clothing and shoes. know that you like the little Belgians, and I like you, too.

eat-boats I

ACHIEL MAES.

Then came the steamship

full

sinking of the Lusitania, the great of people who had never struck a blow 73

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

74 at

Germany. Of the 1,154 drowned, 114 were American

Germany paid no attention to the protests of the United States and went on sinking vessels of all citizens.

ships carrying food to Belgium, Red Cross hospital ships, and ships of neutral countries, making no provision for the escape of the passengers, and some-

nations,

times firing at them if they succeeded in getting into lifeboats. This was rank piracy, and the United States

now

declared war.

There was another reason, and a strong one, for our entering the war. The United States is a democracy that is, the people rule. Germany was an autocracy that is, one man ruled and was answerable to nobody. The Kaiser did not formally notify his council that he had declared war until three days after the

As country after country a struggle between became engaged and autocracy democracy. Moreover, Germany meant declaration

in

was

made.

the war,

it

to crush France, then England, and then attack the

United States. For two years and a half England and France had been fighting our battles. It was high time that we took a hand. There were three things for us to do to help free the world from the danger of autocracy. We must lend

we must furnish an army to help and we must send them food. The fighting; United States is a rich country, and there was no trouble about lending the money. It is a brave, earnest country, and soon hundreds of thousands of young men

money

do the

to the Allies;

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

76

cantonments learning to be soldiers. To food was a more complicated matter. provide The first food that a hungry nation thinks of is bread;

were

in the

and "bread" means to each one the grain to which people are most accustomed. We should think we had no bread if we had only rice in the house; but a Chinaman would think he had no bread if he had Some of the people in this country have only wheat. always been accustomed to eating more or less rye, its

corn meal, rice, -and buckwheat; but our great dependence has been whe*at. Other flours will make "quick breads," but wheat is the only grain that

oatmeal,

make the light white loaf of yeast bread that we This looks well and keeps well, are used to eating. and it has not so strong a flavor of its own as to spoil will

the flavor of other food.

This is the kind of bread to which the Allies are accustomed; but there was not enough wheat to supply us and them, too, with the usual quantity. The best we could do was to "go halves," while both of us

made up what was

lacking by using the other grains. not by themselves make a loaf of raised bread that can be baked in a bakery and kept

These grains

will

and it is bread like this which is necessary in French women always buy their bread. France. They have no ovens, and if they had, fuel is too dear

on

sale,

them to dream of doing their baking at home, while the baker can with a small amount of coal bake many for

loaves at the same time.

WHAT WE DID ABOUT

IT

77

It is not easy to change one's habits of eating. Every one has whims about his food. For instance, Italians fry in oil, but many Americans still feel that the frying material must be solid like lard when it is put into the kettle, even though they know that in three or

four minutes

it

will

become

liquid.

If potatoes should

would be a Those among wheat and more of

suddenly turn blue and bread scarlet, long time before we should relish them. us

who found

it

difficult to

use less

the other cereals are the ones best

how

hard

it

who ought

it

to understand

was for the Allies to become accus-

tomed to putting other grains into their bread. They made no complaint, however, but were grateful that the American supply did not fail them. There was wheat in Australia and New Zealand and in Argentina, but ships could not be spared to carry it to Europe. From the United States to England is not only the shortest route, but it was also the best protected from submarines. In the time that it would take a ship to go from Argentina to England, it could carry two loads It was of soldiers from the United States to France.

The shorter the voyage, the more free ships, the more food and the more ships; soldiers carried to Europe; the more food and soldiers

just plain arithmetic. free

carried to Europe, the sooner

we

could win the war;

could win the war, the fewer of our own the Allies would be wounded or killed. of and boys It was worth our while to send food.

the sooner

As

we

in the case of

wheat, meat could not be carried

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

78

to Europe from distant countries for lack of ships. Meat is the best protein for transportation. Beef contains much protein, keeps well, and is condensed

Pork

food.

both call

is

particularly valuable because it provides and fat. In Ireland people used to

protein the pig "the

gentleman that pays the rent." does more than that in these he has been trying his best to support the

"The gentleman" days, for

country. In 1917. not nearly so many pigs were kept as usual. This was alarming, because pork can be raised more

quickly and easily than other meats. Hogs multiply rapidly, and have sometimes ten or twelve little pigs at

The "keep-a-pig" movement had been started a litter. some years before, and now it took a new life. An effort was made to make people understand that a pig-pen need not be a bad-smelling place, that a pig likes to wallow in mud on a hot day, not because he is naturally dirty, but because the mud is as great a com-

him as a cool bath is to people. The pig is by nature a cleanly animal, and he appreciates fresh water

fort to

and good food. Boys on farms became interested. "Have you bought a pig?" became almost as common a salutation Before long the magazines as, "How do you do?" began to print pictures of remarkably small boys grouped with remarkably large pigs. The problem was solved; and in March, 1918, we sent across the water six times as much pork as our ordinary export.

WHAT WE DID ABOUT The men

IT

79

going "over the top" needed fat not only

for energy, but because it would keep them from feeling hungry so soon, and that was an important matter

when the time

of their next meal

was

a question that In this country we use a great

no one could answer.

deal of fat, and if you should make a list of all the food that you eat during the day, and then cross off every article that contained fat or was cooked or eaten with fat,

very few would be

left.

Before the war, England

used, according to her population, nearly as much fat as the United States. Quantities of butter were sold

by Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. The Russian supply soon failed. Holland, Denmark, and Sweden were neutral countries, but they needed Germany's coal, and Germany would not send it to them to her

unless she could

receive butter in return.

England

made much

oleomargarine, but even with this her of fat was only one-fourth of a pound per and often this small amount could not be

ration

week; bought.

As

to sugar, this

is

convenient form.

A

the luxuries and

I will

to us an agreeable luxury in a

once said, "Give me with the necessities:" dispense and when we were asked to use less sugar than was our custom, it really seemed to trouble us more than saving fats or wheat. Sugar has been very cheap, and we had fallen into the habit of using much more than we need and more than is good for us. Even in 1917, when we all thought ourselves so economical, we used an amount bright

man

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

80

that the Allies would have looked upon as luxury. What was used in preserving, however, was "good

much

was saved that would otherThere was no danger of our for since we had honey, molasses, sweets, suffering corn sirup, and maple sugar, to say nothing of our business/* for

fruit

wise have gone to waste.

sweet

We

fruits, like

had dried

plums, peaches, apples, and berries.

and prunes, hungry for eat some one of and will not seem these, candy, candy half so attractive. On an average every person in this country spends about four cents a week for candy. fruits,

like raisins,

that are even sweeter.

dates,

When you

feel

In six months enough money goes into it to feed the hungry people of Belgium for a whole year. That looks as

if

we

could get on very comfortably with

less

than our usual amount.

One year before the close of the war, our Food Administration was formed. It is not easy to realize the full meaning of a statement whose numbers go up into the millions, but sometimes try.

Here

is

it

is

worth while to

what the Food Administration has

led

us to accomplish in that one year. It was at first calculated that

we must export to bushels of Then the wheat wheat. Europe 100,000,000 failed which we had expected could be carried to the Allies

from other

countries-.

The Food Administration

explained the difficulty and asked us to use only twothirds of our usual amount. By doing so we were able to send to Europe 141,000,000 bushels of the year's

WHAT WE DID ABOUT

IT

81

Of beef we had been accustomed to export crop. one or two million pounds a month; but during this year our largest export in any one month was more than Our export of pork increased from month to 308,000,000 pounds in the month during which we sent most. Before the war, the United States and Canada together were accustomed to send to the countries of the Allies 5 per cent, of their food. During the closing year of the war we 96,000,000 pounds.

50,000,000 pounds a

sent

across

the

Atlantic

eleven

and

three-fourths

million tons of food, that

of their food

deficit.

is, 50 per cent., or one-half This was done "by the willing

service of a free people," but some one had to tell us how. Some one had to learn what were the best foods

to send, to ascertain how much food was in this country, how much could probably be raised within the year,

how much we needed to keep us and the Allies well and strong, how much we wasted, and how much we could save if we tried. We could not wait quietly till a starving country should say, "I need wheat, or meat, or fats;" we must learn the needs of the hungry lands and, just as far as possible, keep a steady stream of supplies flowing to them.

This was not easy. It is true that any one who goes through our markets or sees our wide-spreading fields of grain might fancy that

we had

food enough for at least one world; but as a matter of fact, we have not,

even in ordinary times, so very much more than we ourselves use. Yet the Allies must have their grain,

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

82 their

meat and other protein

foods, their fats

and their

We

must have ours, too. There would be no sugar. " fairness in sending our troops "over there only half and it would take the out of the bravest fed; courage of our soldier boys to know that their families at home were needing food. Here was a puzzle that demanded brains and wisdom, a wide view of every question that

might sense.

arise,

and a big supply of good practical common is why our Food Administration was or-

That

Its prime object was to make sure that more ganized. food was produced, that it was fairly distributed, and that our soldiers, the Allies, and we ourselves, would have

aim was not to make food cheap, less will be produced. No one would buy cows, for instance, have all the trouble of feeding and caring for them and disposing of the milk, enough to

eat.

for if food

is

Its

too cheap,

unless he could count

upon

a fair profit for his labor.

No

farmer would plough and plant and cultivate and gather in crops, unless he was reasonably certain that he would receive a fair price for what he had done.

Our wheat crop of 1917 was one-third below the normal quantity, and the Food Administration set to work energetically to see what could be done. In the first place, the Food Administration and the Department of Agriculture worked together and worked hard

They

to induce the farmers to plant much wheat. sent agents through the wheat country to make

addresses at granges; they helped the farmers select

WHAT WE DID ABOUT

IT

83

the best seed and fight the insects and diseases that

might loyally

lessen

their

crop.

The newspapers worked

and gave up column after column of their

valuable space. But the farmers had a good reason for hesitating. It was possible that the war might come to an end

somewhat suddenly, leaving more wheat on hand than would be needed; prices would go down and they would To prevent this, the Government promised lose. them a minimum price of $2.00 a bushel for the crop. The President, however, increased this price to $2.26 a bushel at the Chicago market, whether the war ended For this purpose the Food Administrain 1918 or not. tion Grain Corporation was formed which became a buyer and seller of grain. "It either bought wheat or its purchase for the Army and Navy, the and some of the neutral countries that depended

arranged for Allies,

upon us for food. The Food Administration also organized a plan by which the buying for all the Allies was done through

To buy

a few pounds of meat, for instance, but to difficult, buy millions of pounds is a different matter. At first each country bought for itself.

one source. is

not

Each of the buyers was afraid his own country would go hungry, and they sometimes bid against one another.

A

better arrangement was now made. Never was so much attention paid to beeves and hogs. Men who knew the meat business through and through decided how much the man or boy who raised the hog ought

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

84 to have,

how much

the packer,

how much

the storage

warehouse, and finally how much the Allies should pay. This plan made sure that every man who had anything to do with the meat should have good pay, but that no one should make exorbitant profits out of the needs of his countrymen or the Allies. Of course much more food had to be exported from the United States than ever before, nearly twice as

Could this be done? In an autocracy the ruler could say to his subjects, "Raise more food and eat All the Allies less," and they would have to obey.

much.

were rationed; but

in a

democracy, and especially

in a

land as large as ours, to enforce such a law would need a whole army of officials and would be exceedingly expensive. cities,

it

Moreover, although it might be done in the would be almost impossible in the country,

where people raise so much of their own food. The Food Administration believed that just as soon as Americans understood the situation, they would "play fair," and would use in their households only a fixed amount of the foods of which we had not a large supply. It explained the situation and asked every American to help.

Even said, "and don't hoard. and of food kind one some if there is plenty of you intend to use it very economically, don't store up more than you need at the time. If you do, more will have to be brought for other people, and our railroads have all they can do to bring what is absolutely necessary. "Don't waste,"

it

WHAT WE DID ABOUT

IT

85

Use food that is nearest and save transportation. Plant a garden and raise your own food." The people of the United States responded most Clubs of all sorts were willingly to these requests. formed whose object was either to increase the production of food or to save food. There were pig clubs, corn clubs, and canning clubs; there were war gardens and school gardens. Everybody who had a bit of land did his best to raise vegetables to supply his own table and to sell. Long before the war, the Garden City movement began, and now the boys and girls set to work with double energy. Many of them canned their In some places these "young citizens'' spare produce. gave a Thanksgiving dinner of their own raising to a group of children who had had no opportunity to make gardens of their own. "And I tell you it was some dinner," said one of the boys enthusiastically. An even wider movement than the Garden City is the School Garden

what

it is;

but

it

Army.

does not

The name

tell

that

it is

tells

in

part

recognized

by

the President of the United States as a real army, which has already more than 1,500,000 enlisted soldiers.

"They

really will be soldiers, although not old

enough Every "garden soldier," boy or girl, is entitled to wear a little bronze bar with the letters "U. S. S. G. A." on it; and any one can guess what that means. The Army was organized early in the spring of 1918, and in its first season it has produced millions of dollars' worth of food stuffs.

'to

fight," says Secretary Lane.

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

86

One

of the slogans, or rather, the

Army

war

cries,

of this

is,

Uncle Sam's

in need,

Pull the weed,

Plant the seed.

was that Americans justified the confidence of Administration and, what is more, they did it Food the Everybody knows the merry little good-naturedly. So

it

rhyme beginning:

My Tuesdays are wheatless, My Wednesdays are meatless, I'm getting more eatless each day.

The Germans

got hold of it and translated it, leaving out the fun, and published it as a bitter complaint of the Americans because of the rapidly increasing shortage of food !

In war time prices always rise, sometimes because for one reason or another there is a smaller supply; but

sometimes because the fact that one thing rises is made an excuse for increasing the price of others. Suppose there was only one bicycle in a place and The one who could pay ten boys wanted to buy it. most would be likely to get it. The price of wheat' was fixed by Congress. The result was that, while in the Spring of 1917 flour cost $16.75 a barrel wholesale, flour from the 1917 wheat crop was sold at $9.80; and the farmer received a much larger share of the The Government has re.price than the previous year.

WHAT WE DID ABOUT

IT

87

men who

dealt in food for people or animals to quired any extent to take out a license. If they did not do

they had to pay a penalty. Dealers who charged more than the lawful price were severely punished by fines or by having their stores closed for a certain number of days or weeks. People who buy in large quantities know what they are paying; but people who buy in small quantities do not always stop to reckon what a barrel of flour would come to if paid for this,

few pounds. For instance, it was found that a dealer who had been selling flour a few pounds at a time was charging at the rate of at the rate that they

$20.00 a barrel.

pay

He was

for a

punished by being forbidden

to open his store till the end of the war. The Government issued licenses to dealers in certain foods, and

the Food Administration was sometimes able to control

by making agreements with those who sold them. During our Civil War, sugar cost at one time thirty and one-half cents a pound wholesale; and it would have surely gone as high as that during this war if the price had not been fixed and dealers forbidden to go beyond it. The Food Administration kept in touch with all changes of situation and told us what was necessary to be done to meet every emergency. Supposing, for instance, that 100,000 hogs were ready for market and a prices

heavy storm put the railroads

in difficulties for a

number

of days, telegrams flashed over the country would ask people to use less pork. When the railroads were

again in running order, there might be for a

little

time

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

88

too much pork for the storehouses and ships; so people were then told that they did not need to do without There were constant changes in the requests of pork. the Food Administration; but this was not because its "forethought came afterward," but because it watched the changing conditions of the country so closely and

advised so wisely. The Food Administration was of course looking out as carefully for us as for the Allies. Our railroads were

overwhelmed with war work.

They had enough

to do

time of peace, but during the war they were called upon to transport ammunition, guns, machinery, food for "over there," all sorts of supplies, and the troops in

Each of the countries had

themselves. as

to receive, as far

proper share of the various kinds of this food had been safely put up in store-

possible, its

food.

Even

if

houses, the question would still have been a large one; but when plans had to be made, much of it was still growing in the fields or running about on four legs.

The probable amount

of

it

had to be estimated, and

crops are rather uncertain things to deal with. Too much rain, too little rain, or some new species of insect

may

easily

make

a difference of millions of bushels in

the harvest.

Not guns

only, but guns and

what won the war.

work and food were

"I'm

tired of using substitutes saving food/' said a thought-

and hearing so much about woman; but did it tire her to hear that we were vic-

less

torious?

The Germans hoped

that

we

should

all

get

WHAT WE DID ABOUT "tired of using substitutes" and so help but that is not the American way. It is

IT them

89 to win;

worth remembering:

in an autocracy one man rules; in a democracy the people rule. That the work of feeding the Allies fell largely upon North America as the nearest country. That the Food Administration was formed to make sure of greater production of food and a fair distribution of it. That under the guidance of the Food Administration our exports of food to Europe were almost doubled; and that this was done "by the willing service of a free people."

That

With

All Able-bodied

Men

at the Front

to Raise the Crops for Their

French

Women Have Had

Homes and Their Armies

as Well

CHAPTER XI

WHAT WE HAVE YET TO DO When

the armistice was signed, we promptly celeall sorts of ways. These ranged from long and the of firing great cannon to the method processions

brated in

man who,

as a sign of the return of peace and plenty, joyfully dropped into his coffee two lumps of

of one

sugar instead of one. At the very first, most of us thought of nothing except that the war was over and the boys would come home.

There would be no more "substitutes," and the sugar bowl would again hold the place of honor on our table. But the more thoughtful among us realized that, although we need no longer fight to free the nations crushed by Germany, we had still to wage a battle with hunger. If you should learn that one person in the house next to your own had died of hunger, it would seem to you a terrible thing. You can hardly imagine the horror of learning that one out of every four among 91

92

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

your neighbors had been starved; but

in

Poland one

person out of every four has died for lack of food; in Serbia one out of every two; and in Armenia more than half of the people have perished of hunger.

Peace has come, but it has not brought food to the hungry. Look at the Hunger Map (see Frontispiece) and remember that every little country on the page is not merely an outline, but represents millions of people who are suffering from hunger. Those still alive in Poland, Roumania, and Serbia, in Armenia and Finland, are starving. So they are in large parts of Russia which were shut off from our help before the Germans were forced to depart from them. Not one country in has food to its Europe enough keep people from going hungry. France, Italy, and the British Isles have not

much as they actually need. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Spain, and Portugal have to get on with much less than their usual supply. We have as

helped to rescue the people of Belgium from starvation, but even the Belgians have had only just enough to save their lives. Surely, the coming of victory ought at least to bring

them food enough

to

make

their lives

endurable.

Then, too, there are the people of Bulgaria, Turkey, and other conquered nations. Many of these will starve unless given help. They have had to

make an

unconditional surrender, and

we

are in honor

bound to make it possible for them to buy food. There is another reason why we must send food to Europe.

We Jiave sacrificed the lives of thousands of our

WHAT WE HAVE YET TO DO

93

men, and we have spent many billions of dollars that the world might be made safe. We are longing for a world of peace and ordei, a world in which a man shall be free to do his best work under the best conditions. Starving people have little regard for law or the rights of others. Lawlessness spreads rapidly. Two or three disagreeable boys will spoil a whole playground; same way a few millions of hungry, unhappy, discontented people will spoil a world. To protect selfish,

and

in the

ourselves, in

we must do our To

need of our help.

best to protect those who are refuse would be to undo the

good work already done. The people of the hungry countries will do for themselves all that any one could do. They will be saving of food of course; but they must have food to save. They will cultivate the ground, but they must get their ground into proper condition to cultivate. Just imagine trying to make a war garden in a field that had been torn up by shells and shrapnel, a field that was "nothing but a network of holes," as one of the soldiers said. And it is in such fields that hundreds of thousands of people will toil to produce their bread. It is no wonder that they need help. There is still another difficulty. Many of the men who would have done their best to cultivate these shelltorn fields have been killed or wounded. All who return will be more or less weakened by the long struggle. There will be a shortage of workers, and there will be a vast

amount of work to be done.

Think what you

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

94

you had come back to your home war and had found the house, and perhaps the whole village or city, nothing but a mass of stones and ashes and cinders. Think of coming would have to do

if

after four years of

back to a farm and finding the fields torn up, the buildThen you will realize ings burned and the cattle gone. what so many people in Europe have to meet, and you will see why they must have good nourishing food and plenty of their

it

in

order to reconstruct

homes and

to build again

their lives.

In this splendid work the United States must have a generous part. Now is our opportunity to prove that we are more eager to give than to gain. The people of Europe will do their best> and next autumn they will

perhaps be able to provide the greater part of their

own

Meanwhile we must help them as we should wish to be helped if we were in want and there were a food.

great land of plenty just across the ocean. What we shall need to send will vary from time to time. Wheat will soon be brought to Europe from In-

than a week after the signing of the armistice Australian ships were already on the way. Both wheat and meat will come from Argentina. Sugar will come from Java. When there are more Some refrigerator ships, we can send more meat. countries will need more wheat, some more fat, and some more sugar than others. To learn beforehand what kinds of food each will require will be in the hands of the Food Administration; and we shall look to it dia and Australia.

In

less

WHAT WE HAVE YET TO DO for guidance, as

we have done

ever since

it

95

was estab-

lished.

Many

people have questioned, "After the

war

is

over, shall we go back to our old careless, extravagant ways of living? Shall we begin again to leave sugar

bottom of the cup and fill the garbage can to overSurely, after having once learned a flowing? No. better way, we cannot go back to the old fashion. While in the

we may

not need to put substitutes into our bread or

to go without meat or to divide our teaspoonfuls into halves and quarters, we shall need to live simply. shall have plenty of food to keep us well and strong,

We

but we shall not have any to waste

if

any of us are so

foolish as to desire to waste.

Another part of the work of the Food Administration will be to see that food is properly distributed both here and abroad. The old way of distributing food was to send it wherever the highest price would be paid, and sometimes to destroy it rather than sell it for a more reasonable price. The new way, the way of kindness and of good sense, too, for that matter is to send it

where

it is

needed to enable people to do their share

of the world's work.

So

it is

that

we willingly bear

brothers across the sea.

United States

the burden of aiding our it was said that the

Long ago

is

The hope of all who suffer, The dread of all wrong.

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

96

We may

well be proud of our country because she is powerful; but we love her because she is kind and generous and thoughtful of those who without her help would

surely perish. It is

worth remembering:

That even the coming

of peace has not

brought

food to the hungry.

That no country in Europe has enough food. That for the hard work of reconstruction nourishing food will be especially necessary. will share generously in who are in need. those for food providing

That the United States

CHAPTER

XII

THE LITTLE GROUP OF ONE Did you ever notice that when anything a little child, his first thought is to put

mouth

as fast as he can

?

When

is

given to

it

into his

few years older, with his family, good things he

is

a

he is ready to share his and after a while he likes to think that

his city or state

or his whole country is faring well. Some day perhaps, shall learn to think of the whole world as one great

we

shall be glad if we can help even a little about that every one has his fair share of the good things of life. That is the deeper meaning of the Food Administration. Its present work is to feed hungry nations, but the meaning of the work is the "brotherhood of man." The Food Administration can only "press the button;" we, the people of the United States, must "do the rest." Germany marched forward with a chip on her shoulder and a challenge to knock it off

family, and

we

in bringing

it

97

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

98

The "chip" was a "dare" to keep the Wars Allies from starving, and we helped to do it. used to be won chiefly by bullets, but this war was won if

we

could.

by bullets and work and bread. We were obliged to have enormous armies and great factories and food for millions; but after all, it was the little group of one that brought success. One man fired one gun, one man helped make munitions, one man cultivated the ground; that is the way the mighty armies, the great throngs of factory workers, and the countless bands of farmers were formed. We shall never get far beyond the verse that little children sing: Little drops of water, Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean And the pleasant land.

We

make a "mighty ocean," but we did help the ocean mighty in its freedom for all manWe could not make a "pleasant land," but we kind. make all lands pleasant by driving away the to helped robber hordes that sought destruction and ruin.

to

could not

make

With the conquered nations we must deal wisely and justly, aiming at what will be for the highest good of the world. We must do our best to help feed and reconstruct the countries that have suffered because of the war.

only by "a long pull and a strong pull and a pull together" that we can do these things. You know the game called the "tug of war," in which half the It is

all

THE LITTLE GROUP OF ONE

99

boys pull at one end of a rope and half at the other. There is no chance for any one in the middle; everybody must pull one way or the other. That is the way it is now; everybody in America is pulling in one way or the other, either to help the country or to hinder her. Not every one can buy Government bonds or many thrift

stamps, but faithful work

money.

Not long ago

a

is

just as helpful as

newsboy

carelessly neglected subscriber telephoned to

The a paper. the clerk office; reported the matter to the head of the delivery department; the head of the delivery deto

deliver

the

partment sent another boy by the electric car to deliver It was quite like "the house that Jack it and took the time of the subscriber, the telebuilt," phone operator, the clerk, the head of the delivery department, and the second boy, and cost two carfares Time and just because one boy was not faithful.

the paper.

valuable in this period of constructing the world anew as they were in the days of barrage fire and machine guns. faithfulness

are

all

fully

as

to

Did you ever realize what an honor it is to be asked work for our country ? A little child is always pleased

if

he can

feel

that he

father or mother.

is

Even

doing something to help his

a little dog will try his best master wants and is delighted if he can do it. Here is a mighty country wideand she says to spreading, prosperous, and powerful every man and woman and to every child, "Will you do " something for me ?

to understand

what

his

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

ioo

Now

what can every little group of one do for the The Food Administration has shown us some ways in which we can help. We know that every garden helps to produce food to make up for that country?

which has been destroyed or prevented from growing. We know that we ought not to waste even a mouthful of food. On the wartime bill of fare of a luxurious hotel there was printed, "Help us to observe the Gospel of the Clean Plate; please order only what you will eat."

We

need

motto just

this

as

much now.

We

must

content ourselves with simpler ways of living, and so save not only food, but also gas and coal and time and labor.

Transportation can be saved. raise all that

it

eats, the railroads

If every family could

would be immensely

A

garden saves transportation, so does buyfood from the nearest farmer. So does shopping ing in your own town or even village instead of going to relieved.

the nearest large city. Save express and mail. Save man power and the expense of carrying goods from the

grocery or market to the house. Our grandmothers, if they happened to live in the country, would have

thought it wonderfully convenient if a delivery wagon had called at their doors once a week. But now! "Some people order one-fourth of a dozen cookies in the morning and a yeast cake in the afternoon," said a grocer. To have no deliveries would be exceedingly wasteful, because it would take the time of hundreds

THE LITTLE GROUP OF ONE of customers rather than of one or

101

two delivery men;

but we can reduce their work by carrying packages home, by never ordering more than once a day, or, even better, once or twice a week, and by trying never to order anything but perishable food just before a Sun-

day or a holiday. Grocers usually have to employ extra help at such times, and a bit of thoughtfulness on the part of the customers would make this unnecessary.

During the last few years boys here at home have had such chances as boys never had before, because places left vacant by men were given to them. They received had and they splendid opportunities to high wages, rise. But did you ever watch them in working hours ?

Some

of them thought they were big folk just because had they dropped into big places. Others were trying

the big places. You could almost see at a glance which ones would rise in the world and which ones would never hold such high positions again. their best to

The

fill

verses about the

hungry

little

French baby who

couldn't be the

"hope of France/' because he couldn't "get enough food to have a chance," end as follows:

I

A

wish

I

had

a father.

If I couldn't

have that, then I wish some

other babies' fathers would give me a place to stay warm, light place, with persons in it while the Person in Skirts

gone

all

is

day.

And maybe they'd give me some food that wasn't as bad as grass tea. Do you think, if their babies have plenty and some left over, the other babies' fathers would do that for

me?

FOOD SAVING AND SHARING

102

This is what we are trying to do; to feed the children and the grown folks, to help the nations that are at last set free from tyranny and cruelty, and to make the world safe and happy for them and for us. "I don't believe you know wh'at 'U.S.' means," some one once said teasingly to a very small American boy.

The

little

fellow

drew himself up to

his

full

height, looked the man in the eye, and said, "'U.S.' means us." are a firmly united people, striving have a big piece of work on hand, for the right.

We We

but "'U.S.' means us," and with the help of

God we

will carry it through. It is

worth remembering:

That the work of the Food Administration is to control and to save food so that every one may share

it.

That in the work that lies before us each person must either help or hinder. That it is an honor to be asked to work for our country.

That "'U.

S.'

means

us."

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